Chapter 28

The wolf wound in my thigh was itchy so without thinking I reached down to scratch it and my heart missed a beat. The jagged wound had been stitched. I rubbed my finger along the coarse stitching. I touched the wound in my side. Stitched! What in hell? My head was spinning. How long have I been sleeping? I tried to understand what my senses were telling me. The room was in motion. I blinked and struggled against a restraint that held me on my bed. I struggled to see something, anything, in the dark, dank room.
Outside I heard voices. Where am I? My arms were free so I pulled on the rope that tied me to my bed. Why am I tied! The rescue plan, I have to get up! I started to panic, I had no idea where I was, and yet I knew that I had to meet the servant girl, Nelly Bass, at the servant gate at sunrise. I couldn’t think clearly. The damp smell of saltwater-cured wood was all too familiar to me. I untied the ropes and rolled out of the bunk. My weak legs collapsed and the violent roll of the room caused me to fall with a thump onto a hard wooden floor. Suddenly, sickeningly, I knew I was not in a tavern keeper’s room. I am at sea!
Crawling to overcome the pitch and roll, I reached a set of narrow wooden steps, pulled myself up and pushed hard to open the hatch. A wall of water crashed into me.
“Close that hatch!” A sailor tied to the capstan yelled above the howling wind.
I grabbed a wooden rail next to the hatch-frame to prevent being swept away by wind and water. Lying flat on the soaking deck, I kicked the hatch door closed.
“William, go below and seal your hatchway!” The voice was unmistakable. My uncle James stood braced at the steering station leaning into the wind, next to the helmsman. Holding tight to the wooden rail, I ducked as a second wave washed over me. “We need a man aloft to secure those lines!” James yelled and a soaked figure crawled along the deck toward the mainmast rigging.
The storm we were sailing through was nothing compared to the storm of emotion that raged in me. I have been betrayed! Rational thought flew from my mind like the spray from the raging waves. At that moment I didn’t care if I lived or died. I had been stolen and all hope of saving Helen stolen with me.
My face wet with seawater and tears of rage, I scrambled toward James. He is responsible! He betrayed me! As I reached the short step that led up to the stern deck and steering station, a monstrous wave crashed over the rail, hitting me broadside and washing me down the deck head first through a wide scupper and into the churning lips of the frothing ocean.
Just as my head plunged into the water, a strong hand gripped my heel and pulled me back on board. Gasping to regain my breath, I reached out and took the hand of the sailor who had saved me from a watery grave. The broad shouldered man pulled us both back along the deck by hauling on a rope tied to the capstan. He put a tether under both my arms and around my chest and synched me to his own line.
“What the hell were you thinking?” The sailor put his arm over me as another huge wave crashed over the side.
“I shouldn’t be here. He betrayed me.” I pointed to James and shivered as the wind lashed my face with stinging beads of water.
“Aye, well if we survive this storm, I am sure there will be plenty of time to settle the matter.”
The ship heaved rising to the crest of a giant wave, then plunged down the other side, pounding into the ocean at the trough. I held on for all I was worth, thankful that we built sounds ships in Freswick bay. Confronting my Uncle would have to wait.

THE END